


Wintry Incentives

by Iritvea



Category: Dangan Ronpa, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Bonding, F/M, Pre-Despair, Snow, Snowball Fights, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-03
Updated: 2016-12-03
Packaged: 2018-09-06 06:16:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8737978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iritvea/pseuds/Iritvea
Summary: My response to the "winter" prompt for Togafukaweekend. A snowfall is the big news on the Hope's Peak campus, and Touko and Byakuya become participants in a snowball fight.





	

Byakuya sat at what, in the corner of the first level cafeteria, unofficially passed for “his table.” It was one of the smaller round tables in the corner which only ever had one chair at it as Byakuya had discarded the other chair on the first day of school and no one, to their credit, bothered to move it back.

He could generally count on having that table to himself. Sometimes his classmates from the 78th year would come by to ask him a question, or make some kind of request, but for the most part he was content to sit by himself with his coffee and a book.

He balanced the book in one hand and kept his digits wrapped around the handle of the cup. A few feet away, at the rectangular table closest him, a few of the girls from his class were doing some sort of papercraft. He would sometimes allow his attention to wander over to them, and the words from their conversation to enter his consciousness, but not for more than a few seconds at a time. This distribution of his attention was more suited to scanning his immediate area for potential threats than it was to participating in the discussion.

“Am I doing it right?” Aoi asked Sayaka, whom Byakuya had previously determined to be the ringleader of the affair.

Sayaka giggled lightly, “Almost… here!” She reached out and took Aoi’s hands, guiding her in the correct way to make one particular fold.

“This is fun!” said Aoi. “I can’t believe Fukawa-chan and Celes-chan didn’t wanna do it.”

Byakuya’s brow furrowed. He couldn’t imagine either of the female classmates Aoi had mentioned reacting positively to being asked to do some menial craft during their free time. It briefly crossed his mind to say as much, but as he was about to open his mouth, the entire room broke out in a swell of noise which radiated out from the windows, drawing the attention of Aoi and the others away from their craft.

Byakuya looked up from the novel. Excited murmurs met his ears. He watched as Aoi and the others stood up from the table and made their way over to the window, where a menagerie of students had gathered.

“Look, it’s snowing!”

Byakuya’s gaze flickered to the space just above the crowd where a smattering of fragile flakes drifted down from overhead. The construction of the space outside the cafeteria meant that you couldn’t really see the sky from inside, so Byakuya supposed it was _partially_ understandable that the falling snow induced surprise in his classmates...

... but not completely.

A hand slammed down on the table.  

“Heeyyy Togami-kun!”

Byakuya didn’t look up from where the offending appendage had landed. He knew from the voice as well as the tacky red nails that both belonged to Junko Enoshima.

“You looked out the window recently?”

Byakuya returned his gaze to the book, “Yes. It’s snowing. I didn’t need you to point that out to me. Unlike the rest of our classmates, I can contain my excitement in the presence of natural phenomena.”

“Tsk, tsk!” Junko tutted. She proceeded to do what sounded like rapping her acrylic nails on the table, drawing an irritated glance from Byakuya up from the book into what turned out to be an eyeful of Junko’s cleavage, carefully positioned so that it eclipsed the exact spot where her hand had been seconds before.

“You’re no fun, Togami-kun!” Junko half-whined.  

Byakuya aggressively directed his gaze upwards to Junko’s face. She beamed at him with a goofy smile. He noticed that Mukuro hovered a few steps behind her.

Junko waved a finger, “A good snowfall is a great excuse to warm up next to a special someone, to cuddle or to get closer in other ways…” She shook her head from side to side, “Maybe you and a sweetheart are together, and maybe it’s so cold you slowly start inching together… and then you do that old move where you pretend you need to yawn so you can reach your arm around them…”

“If your intent is to bore me with your usual inane rambling, that has been sufficiently accomplished,” Byakuya spat curtly.

Junko clapped her palm to her chest, “You cut me to the quick, Togami-kun!” Her eyes narrowed for a moment before she tilted her head to the side and twirled a lock of hair around a finger, “You know, I like to think of myself as something of a big sister to all my beloved classmates, and you can’t blame me for wanting to look out for my ‘siblings’ and make sure they don’t live their lives as dried up old sausages afraid to have a little fun!”

“You’re still not making any sense,” growled Byakuya, “and besides…”

He didn’t get to finish the statement, as Junko evidently chose to ignore all the signals he was giving off that he wanted to be left alone, and sat herself on the table—close enough that she was inches from knocking over his coffee.

He grit his teeth, but remained still.

Junko’s voice dropped an octave, “Aren’t I, Togami-kun? I’m certain you can picture it… Bundled together amidst the elements with a lovely individual of your choice…” Her voice inched up in pitch as she continued, “You get closer and closer… arms linked, legs overlapping, knit together in a bundle of heat and raw energy… Ooh! I’m getting steamy just thinking about it!”

“Then stop thinking about it,” Byakuya closed his book and stood up. “Your tasteless imagery is appalling, though if your intent was to rattle me, you’ve failed.” He reached past her and seized the coffee cup. “Spew that garbage at some of our other classmates, and you might get a more satisfactory reaction, but do it in my absence… I’m leaving.”

Junko brought her hands up to her face and glanced at him with childlike wide eyes, “Oh! So soon?”

Without bothering to respond, Byakuya turned and strode away from the table, out of the cafeteria.

Byakuya arrived at the library on the second floor in a matter of minutes, and made his way inside to find it pleasantly quiet. The only person in the library sat at a table with her back to the door, busily typing on one of the school’s laptops.

As Byakuya eyed Touko Fukawa, who stalled out at something and gnawed on the side of her thumb for a second before resuming her feverish plucking at the keys. Occasionally, she would reach over and make a few notes on a small notepad that sat next to the keyboard, but she never did look up—even when he moved to take a seat on the other end of the table.

Byakuya would have expected a protracted ‘Byakuya-sama!’ and possibly scrambling to offer him more room at the table, but he remembered her saying something about having a deadline coming up—a sufficient explanation for why she didn’t look up when he entered.

It mattered little, he supposed. This only meant she wouldn’t distract him.

He cracked the book he’d brought and folded one leg over the other, but the words almost failed to enter his mind. Unpleasantly, he became absorbed in and ruminated on Junko Enoshima’s previous words instead, her voice chiming in almost a singsong fashion through his memory.

_“I’m certain you can picture it...”_

Byakuya huffed. The way she’d described it, anyone could have pictured exactly what she’d been trying to imply. The only person Byakuya could imagine crafting a more vivid scene with her words, and possibly more artfully, presently sat cornerways to him at the table. If it were for a novel, he thought, she would probably be more discrete than Enoshima had been. Though, if she were to speak out loud, her desire would be more pronounced and he knew he would almost certainly be the focus.

He looked at Touko, who looked to be biting her bottom lip as she reread whatever she had just typed.

_“A good snowfall is a great excuse to warm up next to a special someone.”_

Byakuya frowned and forced his attention back to the book, but an image of Touko remained burned into his brain. He’d never thought of her as a ‘special someone,’ so he thought her appearance alongside the echoing of Junko’s assertions to be unwarranted, but the longer he sat with his eyes on the page and nothing but images of Touko and he, the less sure he became of this fact.

After a while, the book became little more than a ruse, a landing spot for his gaze, used merely to disguise where his attention was. Pride prohibited him from lifting his head enough to see what Touko was doing, but nevertheless she captivated his thoughts.

He found himself disturbingly comfortable with the idea of Touko snuggled up against him, possibly clutching his arm, underneath a blanket. The roaring fire before them illuminated her face, giving it such clarity in his mind it was almost startling. Her eyes met his as he moved in towards her, reaching under the cover for her waist so he could pull her closer and…

The sound of the library door sliding open pulled him from the scene he’d been crafting and he looked up to see Leon Kuwata and Makoto Naegi watching him and Touko from the doorway. Neither of them had ever been his favorite person, and now they had managed to demote themselves further by nearly catching him off-guard.

“Togami-kun!” shouted an unusually-friendly-sounding Leon. He waved from the doorway where he and Makoto continued to stand, a gesture Byakuya did not return.

“What business do you two have here?” called Byakuya. He eyed Touko, who had only looked up from the laptop upon hearing him speak. Following a split-second glance at Byakuya, she turned around to glare at Makoto and Leon.

Leon didn’t hesitate to answer, unlike Makoto, “Okay, so, all of us from class 78 went out to play in the snow and we got to thinking ‘Hey, you know who would make this more fun?’”

Byakuya eyed him dubiously, “Get to the point.”

Leon’s eyes widened and he ceased speaking, which pleased Byakuya until Makoto spoke up.

“We were hoping that you would come join us outside?”

“I can’t speak for Fukawa,” Byakuya drawled, “But I can’t conceive of any reason to spend my time running around in the snow with the likes of you.”

“M-Me either,” murmured Touko.

Leon’s smile faded and turned into a scowl, “Look, we’re playing the upperclassmen in a snowball fight, but we don’t have enough people to make it fair, so we were sent up here to ask you two jerks if you would play, all right?”

“I still don’t see how this demands my attention,” Byakuya looked up from the book and directed his gaze pointedly at Makoto and Leon. “Unless you can make it interesting.”

Makoto scratched his chin, “How would we do that?”

Byakuya turned a page that he hadn’t actually read, “Figure it out. Give me decent incentive to join and I will. Give us _both_ decent incentive, and you’ll have a full team.”

Leon shook his head, “What do you want? Money? Chicks?”

The fact that Makoto shot Leon a disapproving stare and Touko jerked in her seat and growled at this, was not lost on Byakuya.

Makoto turned back to them and waved his palms in what Byakuya guessed was supposed to be an apologetic gesture.

“Togami-kun, I’m sure it’s fine… We can probably just get some of the other class to sit out…” He gave what was possibly a nervous laugh as he added, “and not having you play will save time because we won’t have to explain the rules.”

“ _Excuse_ me?”

Plastered across Makoto’s face the next second was a look of recognition that he’d said something wrong, mixed with what Byakuya had labeled his ‘confusion face.’

For Byakuya’s part, he stood up from where he’d been, and took his time walking around the side of the table, never taking his eyes off Makoto.

“Are you implying that I am so simplistic I cannot understand, and would be a burden in, a _children’s playground game_?”

He arrived in front of Makoto in time to hear Touko chime in, “Y-You disgusting animals! How _dare_ you pay Byakuya-sama such an insult! W-Why you ought to be…”

“It wasn’t like that!” Makoto protested, “I just meant…”

“You think someone of my intellect can’t discern the rules of any game in a matter of seconds?”

Leon appeared to be cowering, somewhat, behind Makoto.

“I just thought you probably hadn’t played before…” Makoto tried. “It doesn’t sound like something you would do!”

Byakuya lowered his voice, “Oh, really?”

There was a kind of stalemate in the room for the next few seconds, while Leon froze in place and Makoto waited until a three-count had passed before he slowly lowered his hands.

Byakuya leaned into Makoto’s face, “If that’s the case, then I accept your challenge.”

“C-Challenge?” Makoto echoed.

Byakuya stood up and folded his arms across his chest, “Clearly you think this is an area in which you can best me.” He extended a finger into Makoto’s face, “I accept the implicit challenge, and I will show you that I can excel in this game, as in all things.”

“A-And I’ll join, too!” said Touko, arriving at Byakuya’s side. “I-If any one of you lays a hand on Byakuya-sama, I’ll make you wish you were never born!”

Makoto looked back and forth between the two of them for a second before a small smile spread across his face, “That’s great, guys!”

“Don’t act like you weren’t expecting this,” hissed Byakuya. “You may go and tell our classmates that we will be joining you.”

Makoto nodded and he and Leon slowly backed out of the room, “O-Okay! Sure!”

Byakuya watched Makoto and Leon leave, and very shortly departed the library himself. He made his way to his dorm and emerged from the school building minutes later in his cold weather attire.

He found Touko standing at the front door, inside, clad in a worn pea coat with an oversized scarf wrapped around her neck. He realized she must have already been outside, as the tops of her ears were rather pink.

“How long have you been standing there?” he asked on impulse, causing her to jump slightly.

“N-Not long… They’re ready to start…” she answered. “I was coming to get you.”

“I’m here,” Byakuya said. “Worry about yourself.”

Touko flushed enough for the rest of her face to almost match her ears, “Y-yes, Byakuya-sama…” she giggled.

She followed him as he stepped outside and made his way to where both classes had gathered in the middle of the front walkway, around Ishimaru, who was shouting directions.

“Remember, as agreed upon, it is against the rules to hit someone in the face! If you hit someone in the face with your snowball, then you, not they, are out!”

 _Fair enough,_ thought Byakuya.

Ishimaru continued, “Outside the schoolyard is considered out-of-bounds! If you step outside of the bounds, you are also out!”

Byakuya rolled his eyes.

“Yukizome-sensei has kindly agreed to referee! Let us give her a big hand!”

Byakuya noticed that both classes cheered this announcement more than he would have expected.

“Now, get to your sides! You will have ten seconds to find a suitable hiding place, and then we begin!”

Byakuya observed the crowd parting to go in two different directions while Chisa Yukizome counted loudly and slowly backwards from ten. The 78th class ran towards one part of the fence and the 77th the opposing side.

He didn’t move.

“Togami, come on!” cried Aoi, running past him. When he looked where she went, he saw her run behind a mound of snow that was just large enough to conceal most of Sakura Oogami, and duck next to her friend.

“Dude, get out of the open! You’re gonna get hit!” called another voice, which Byakuya determined to be Mondo Owada, who had found shelter crouched behind the base of one of the larger statues in the front garden.

Byakuya sighed, and quickly scanned the surrounding area for a suitable hiding place, but everywhere was rapidly filling with people. With much reluctance, he ultimately decided to duck around the trunk of one of the thicker cherryblossom trees near him.

“Four! Three! Two!” cried Chisa from somewhere he couldn’t presently see.

Chisa reached “one” only to be drowned out by the sounds of the 77th class crying out in unison as they raced towards the 78th class’ side.

Over the commotion, Byakuya could just make out Ishimaru’s voice.

“They’ve gone with a full-frontal assault!”

The unspoken consensus seemed to be that this called for a scatter, as several students from the 78th side bolted out of their hiding spots. Some, like Yasuhiro, simply ran for another hiding spot, while others, like Aoi, opted to run towards the noise.

Byakuya opted to remain hidden and peered around the side of the tree to see a wall of students approaching, each with a snowball raised high over their heads. A brown-haired girl, who had apparently elected to wear a short skirt outside in this weather, was at the forefront with several snowballs stacked high in her arms. She successfully dodged a snowball thrown at her from somewhere, before catching another one in her mouth and biting it in two.  

Byakuya grimaced.

“Not in the face!” cried Chisa, “That’s a warning, Kuwata-san!”

Following the prior exchange, the girl approached a wall of snow built by Sayaka and proceeded to pelt it with snowballs. Her aim wasn’t great, but it was enough to force Sayaka to curl up in a small ball behind the fortress. When the girl realized Sayaka wasn’t going to return fire, she made for the side of the snow fortress, only to be immediately confronted by Mukuro, who raced out from behind some snow-covered bushes, pelted the brown-haired girl with two snowballs and then did a tuck-and-roll to dodge three sent her way by a short blonde kid and a girl with silver hair before racing off in another direction.

“Owari-san, you are out!” called Chisa.

Despite her prior aggression, the girl didn’t seem too upset by this news, and calmly walked away to go sit out. The blonde boy who had been directly behind her jumped to dodge the first volley thrown by Sayaka, which seemed to prompt the silver-haired girl behind him to return fire, hitting Sayaka in the shoulder.

“Maizono-san, you are out!” called Chisa.

Byakuya frowned. It wasn’t explicitly clear how to win this game, but he supposed the answer was to stay ‘in’ longer than anyone else. If that was the case, he thought, he could probably stay hidden and be fine.

This train of thought was cut short when he heard a couple of footsteps behind him.

Byakuya pivoted to look behind him and caught sight of one of the 77th class, a boy with pink hair, creeping towards him with a snowball in his hand. The boy grinned, showing off a row of pointy teeth.

“Sonia-san! Check this out!”

He made to throw the snowball, but before he could do so, or Byakuya could react, a large snowball came sailing in from outside Byakuya’s field of vision and hit the kid squarely in the chest.

Byakuya turned all the way around this time, and followed the trajectory of the snowball to find Touko running towards them, kicking up snow behind her as she barreled towards the pink haired student with an even bigger snowball, this time just larger than the average basketball, held over her head.

“Stay away from him!”

The pink haired kid took several steps back and waved his hands, eyes slowly widening. “Whoa! Whoa! Okay! I’m out! I’m out!”

 When Touko didn’t show any signs of stopping, however, he hesitated for a second, and then turned and ran, all the while screaming out something unintelligible.

Touko skidded to a halt in front of Byakuya and cautiously lowered the gargantuan snowball, eyeing the departing student with clear distaste.

Byakuya cleared his throat, “That was… something.”

Touko turned to look at him with surprise. She stared for a moment before clutching the snowball to her chest. The strange half-smile that accompanied her daydreaming crept onto her face, “I-I saw t-that coward sneaking up on you from my hiding space.”

“I could have engaged him myself,” Byakuya said. However, as he considered it, he realized he probably wouldn’t have had the time to create a snowball and return fire before being pelted himself. That, and the image of her chasing the other student away remained as a positive presence in his mind. He swallowed and added, “But I appreciate it.”

At this, Touko turned a stunned glance on him, and appeared as though she was about to drop the snowball.

“Byakuya-sama…”

Byakuya wasn’t inclined to repeat the sentiment, but he did spare a small, closed-lip smile for Touko. Touko returned it with a very warm smile of her own. Around them the sounds of their battling classmates faded into white noise as they drew together.

That was, until a snowball collided with Touko’s elbow.

“Fukawa-san! You’re out!” cried Chisa.

Byakuya turned to look both for Chisa and for Touko’s assailant. What he saw was a white-haired kid staring back at him, looking inappropriately confused.

“I’m sorry, is that how you’re supposed to play?” The kid smiled, “I probably had the rules wrong. Is it unsporting to attack an unready opponent?”

Byakuya’s answer came in the form of him ducking down and quickly packing some snow into a dense snowball, which he promptly lobbed with as much force as he could manage at this student.  

However, despite what Byakuya considered his normally very precise aim, the snowball curved upwards just enough that it met and splattered across the offending student’s face.

“Togami-san! You’re out!” cried Chisa.

The student appeared stunned, but not hurt. He blinked away some of the snow and wiped the rest away on the inside of his sleeve.

“I guess not,” he said.

Byakuya scowled.

“Togami-san! Fukawa-san!” Chisa’s voice drifted over to them, somehow louder this time. “You are both out! Kindly leave the playing field!”

Byakuya’s scowl receded into simply a deep frown.

“Come on, Fukawa…” he sighed, and turned to leave.

Instead of sitting down with the other students who had gotten “out” Byakuya opted to trace a path around the side of the building. Touko followed, walking a few steps behind him but gradually getting closer until, at a point on the school grounds where there was fresh snow untouched, it seemed, by any of the other students or groundskeepers, they walked side-by-side.

The soft crunch of snow beneath their boots was the only sound around to punctuate their conversation, which had started back by the front doors and hadn’t yet ceased.

“T-That idiot got us both out…” hissed Touko. “There s-should be a rule against that.” 

Byakuya smirked, “If there was a rule to halt those who have an advantage, however ridiculous it may seem, then there would be no challenge in the game, and no reason for someone like me to participate.”

Touko chewed her lip, but nodded.

“I did find your strategy intriguing, however…”

“O-Oh?”

“Yes. Though I can’t say I’ve played much of that particular game, I can say it appeared to be a rather unorthodox style… “

Touko looked to the side.

“Did you play much of this game growing up?”

Touko brought a hand up to bite on her thumb, but ceased when she evidently realized it was still gloved. “No,” she said.

“No?”

Touko shook her head, “The other kids didn’t want me to play…” a flicker of anger passed through her eyes for a moment before she took on a more wistful countenance, “I would sometimes sit at the side of the playground and make snowballs… J-Just in case anyone asked me to play…” Her brow creased, “N-No one did, b-but I got really good at making them.”

“Like your writing…”

“Yes, like my…” she stopped in her tracks and turned to face Byakuya. “Byakuya-sama?”

Byakuya stopped and took in Touko’s stunned expression as it gradually melted into one of adulation.

“Well, you have a reputation…” he said, carefully choosing his words once he realized he couldn’t backpedal. “You were scouted for and accepted to the most prestigious school in the country for your writing.” He stayed still as Touko drew near, continuing the train of thought, “Clearly, at least some of the time that didn’t go into playground games went into refining your craft.”

He realized then, how close she was. She stared up at him with searching eyes and face tinged pink at the cheekbones from the cold wind that blew around them.

The cold wind continued to blow around them as Byakuya leaned in, reducing the height difference and closing the gap between them completely when his lips landed on Touko’s. He could feel his heart speed up in his chest as he felt the warmth of her lips on his and radiating off her face in contrast to their surroundings.

He withdrew, quickly, and managed, “I suppose you’re okay with… our present… arrangement?”

Touko nodded, and he mirrored her when she leaned in again.

 


End file.
